


Genesis

by Ghost0



Series: The Road to Balance [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-19
Updated: 2020-11-19
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:41:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27636320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ghost0/pseuds/Ghost0
Summary: On a planet in the Outer Rim is a young man named Zoran. Works with a young woman named Marigold to uphold peace in a small town. But after a criminal connected to his past shows up, he makes a decision that will set a series of events in motion that will alter his place in the galaxy
Series: The Road to Balance [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2020676
Kudos: 1





	Genesis

He woke up shortly after she had gotten out of bed. Getting dressed quickly, she went into the kitchen to grab something to eat. Slowly getting up, he turned his body around and let his feet touch the hard ground. He rubbed his face with both hands, still tired. Had too much fun in bed to get any actual sleep. The young blue skinned Twi’lek woman came back to the bedroom and offered him something to drink. Accepting it, he drank the blue liquid before handing back the glass and getting on his clothes. Black boots, robe, fingerless gloves. The only thing not black were the white forearm body armor he took from a dead First Order Storm trooper. Grabbing his blaster and putting it in his holster on his thigh, the two of them stepped outside.

A dark and cloudy morning, looks like it could start raining at any moment. The woman, named Pona, put her hand on his shoulder. “Thank you for your help.”

“Don’t mention it.” He turned to look into her eyes. “You know where your meeting your pilot?” She nodded her head. He thought about leaning in to kiss her lips one more time. They did a lot of that last night, among other things, and he loved the way she tasted. But he knew that kissing her now would somehow ruin that experience, despite it now being in the past. “Take care. May the Force be with you.”

“And you as well.” She smiled kindly and turned around. He watched walk away for several minutes, not wanting to voluntary walk further away. But he knew that he had things to do, and forced him to move the other way. Other citizens were starting to get out, opening businesses and going about their daily lives. A few them recognized him and either audibly greeted him or simply gave him a nod. He walked through the growing crowd of people, eventually making his way to the station. The door opened and he stepped inside.

Instantly running into Marigold, she almost fell down onto the floor. He reached out, grabbing her dark skinned hand. Gaining balance, she raised an eyebrow and let go of his hand. “Sometimes I feel like part of you secretly wants to kill me.” She looked him over, sensing something. “Let me guess. Went to the cantina and had a few drinks with a new friend?”

“No. But your right, I did make a new friend.” He stepped towards a small desk, turning on the computer. Looking through news reports, he turned back around to Marigold. “I see that Kevin didn’t annoy you to death during the night shift. I’m guessing that you actually had work to do?”

“Got a body.” He raised an eyebrow. Motioning with her hand, he followed her over into the basement. In a glass coffin, he saw the body of a middle aged man with some scorch marks on his chest. A couple of administrative droids were in the room, filing the necessary reports. “Looks like someone got him with a blaster. Don’t recognize him, so he must have been making a pit stop before going somewhere else. Didn’t get to him until after he got shot. I was lucky I could hear it, otherwise we might not have seen him for some time. Happened outside of town.”

One of the droids came up to him and handed him a device. Taking it, he looked at the screen and saw a picture of the dead man in front of him. “Duncan Qusar is his name. A mid-level thief by the looks of it. Maybe he was lying low after completing a job. Must have worked with a partner, who ended up turning on him.”

Marigold approached him, staring down at the body. “I can try and find anything that has been reported about him from the last several days. Any recorded spotting of him could give us a clue as to how he came here and who might have killed him.”

“I know you said you found him out of town. But where out of town?”

“Go down the main road, past the landing area. Then you make a sharp right and go to where the stone turns to grass.” He started to turn around and head back upstairs. But before he could get up the steps, she spoke up again. “By the way, word is that a ship transporting a slave got sabotaged over in the nearby star system.” She turned around to face his back. “Person responsible might have crash landed here, along with the slave girl he was trying to save. You know I don’t care if you had any involvement with something like that, right? Not that I think you actually left this rock planet, but if you gave her a place to crash for the night you can tell me.”

His head turned to the left before he answered. “If anyone from that pitiful republic asks, we have nothing to report regarding a missing Twi’lek.” Going up the stairs, Marigold nodded to herself before turning back to the dead body. She started the process of sending out an update to any law enforcement agents in the system.

He passed Kevin on the way out, who almost pulled him into another one sided conversation where he does all the talking. But he mentioned about investigating the murder that happened and Kevin let him go. Turning left, he walked down the road. As he got closer to the edge of town, he looked out to the surrounding environment. The town was at a base of a mountain. Pretty much anything created by people on this planet exists at the base of a mountain. The planet is practically a series of mountains. The only exceptions being a couple pockets of forests and a few small oceans. Looking to his right, he saw a couple of ships take off while one landed. He picked out the ships that haven’t moved, only two standing there. His eyes were drawn to one in particular. No visual reason why, it looked like any other ship he has seen come through. But he knew that this ship was somehow connected to the body currently at the station. 

He walked towards the landing field, quickly approached by the Besalisk named Morton. “Zoran! You better not be high jacking one of these ships here. I get paid to repair them and make sure they don’t go anywhere without their pilot.”

“Actually, I did want to talk to you about one of these ships.” He pointed to the one he was eyeing, the small yellow vessel at the edge of the platform. “When did that arrive?”

“Couple of days ago I think.” Morton crossed two of his arms and the other two he held at his hips. “Pretty small ship. I’m surprised it was able to hold both of them. Probably not much room to spare or maneuver.”  
“So two people were in it?” Zoran turned to face Morton.

He nodded his head. “They landed during night time, couldn’t get a good look at one of them. The other paid me some credits to keep an eye on it.”

“Was this that guy?” Holding up his arm, palm facing downward, he pulled up a hologram of Duncan’s face. Morton nodded, letting Zoran turn off the hologram. “Have you seen this partner of his after they initially landed?” Morton shook his head. One more question. “Last night, did you notice anything strange? The guy who paid was found dead a little bit on the far side of the platform.” Zoran pointed with his hand, a little bit away was a small forest.

“Can’t say that I have.” Zoran nodded in understanding. He left the landing area, letting Morton go back to work. Back on the road, he turned on his communicator and contacted Marigold. “He was travelling with someone. Got confirmation for Morton, but he didn’t get a good look at him. Tell me you got something useful.”

“You can say that. Better if I explain this face to face.”

“I’ll be there.” Turning off communication, he let his arm go back to his side. He walked back to the station, meeting with Marigold on the main floor. Heading towards the back, Zoran crossed his arms. Marigold held a device in her hand, bringing up some pictures. It showed Duncan and another guy, this one a Nagai. Pale and black skin on his face with dark red eyes, dark hair. Seemed to be roughly the same age as Duncan, best that he can tell. All he cared about was the scar that ran diagonally across his face. Grabbing the device from Marigold, he looked at the screen as she started to talk.

“That guy there is Noro. Two have been wanted after stealing a bunch of credits from Canto Bight recently. Bunch of people from the new Republic have been tracking them down. Even got in contact with someone after I updated Duncan’s status to deceased. They are a fair way away, no surprise there. So it will take a couple of days before anyone can get here.” She noticed that he kept staring at the picture of Noro on the screen. Curious, maybe even a little concerned, she had to ask. “You all right there? Do you know the guy?”

“No. But I have seen him. Years ago.” He put the device on the closest table, his hand becoming a fist. Silence for several minutes, then Kevin walked around and spoke up. 

“You think we should try and purchase some maintenance droids for this place? We don’t use a lot of the space here, but I feel it would be nice to have them around. That way when we do need to make repairs for stuff we actually use, it would be a lot better than manually- “

“For fucks sake Kevin, get the droids! Kind of in the middle of something right now!” Marigold cut him off. Giving a thumbs up, Kevin got out of eyesight. She turned back around to look at Zoran who stared down at the ground. Slowly exhaling, she made an offer. “Want me to join you? If we do come across him, our chances of taking him down are better.”

He nodded in agreement. Grabbing her blaster, the two of them walked out and rejoined the town. They decided to go to the nearest lodge in town. Once they arrived, they showed a picture of Noro. The woman recognized him instantly.

“Yep, he checked in a couple days ago. He and a friend got separate rooms. I think this one left a little while ago.” Marigold turned off the hologram of Noro.

“Did he say where he was going or said anything that might have indicated where he might have gone?” The woman shook her head. The two of them left, hitting the road again. Walking through town, they started going to various shops and restaurants to try and find the Nagai. After a few hours, they sat down right outside of a shop. Zoran leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees as he stared off into space. Marigold thought out loud about any places that he could have used to hide out. While she talked, he remembered.

************

He wasn’t even ten years old when it happened. His dad had dragged them to another planet. Some sort of desert planet, he doesn’t remember the name. But it is completely irrelevant. At this point, he had more or less become completely obsessed. His mom left them a while ago, couldn’t stand to watch him dive deeper into this useless pursuit. At least, that’s what he now thinks. At the time all he knew was that he missed her a lot. Dad was getting scarier, always searching for lost artifacts and teachings. Anything related to the Sith and their culture. Even now, he doesn’t understand the point of it. They were dead and long gone. The Empire was gone. Sure, the First Order was rising but it’s not like one guy with all the knowledge of a group of people long gone was going to stop them. 

Regardless, he had dragged Zoran once again on his journey. All though it seemed like their entire life was a journey, never having one place he could call home His father though this desert planet would hold some insight. Or at least have someone that could point him towards something even more important. Young Zoran wanted to complain about the heat, but knew it would fall on deaf ears. He would either ignore him or dismiss them as quickly as he heard them. He dragged him to this cantina, amazed that they allowed him inside at all considering his age. Only a few other people were in the building, maybe. His father met with Noro. But back then, he didn’t know his name. Just what he looked like. Most of the man’s skin was white, with some of it being black. That could be seen on his face, most of it being white with his lower jaw being black, a jagged border in between the two. Both of his eyes were inside a rectangle of black skin, holding the dark red orbs that were his eyes. Not sure how the two got in contact with each other, but he must have had information that his father wanted. His father let go of Zoran and walked over to sit down from across the Nagai.

Zoran was sitting a couple of tables away, just daydreaming and trying to not get too bored. But then the two of them were yelling at each other, getting his attention. Looking back and trying to remember, Zoran put together that the information wasn’t good enough for his father. He remembered pushing himself off the seat to get onto the floor, wanting to go over to his father. But that was when the blaster was taken out and he was shot. Smoke coming off his body, his father hit the ground. The Nagai turned to look at the child he had just made an orphan. That was why his scar was etched in Zoran’s memory. He could never forget the face responsible. Without even thinking, he ran out and ditched the planet. One of the people in the cantina got out and reached out to him. Zoran remembered a tear rolling down his cheek, but he never really cried or bawled like a child would. He had to grow up, despite every part of his young being screaming out for his parents to come back to him.

************

“Hey! Calling Zoran!” He turned around to face Marigold. Judging by her look, she had been trying to get his attention a couple times. “Got any thoughts about where we should check out next?” He turned back around and surveyed the area they were in. As he did so, for a split second he saw the face. That scar, he would remember it anywhere. Marigold studied his body, noticing it tense up and be more alert. Looking into the crowd across from them, she picked up on what he must have noticed. The two of the got up, slowly walking over. Following his lead, they spread apart and walked forward. There was one guy that she noticed had pitch black hair. Looking over to Zoran and connecting where his eyes were, she felt confident this was the guy.

The guy in black hair wore armor covering the top half of his body. Spikes covered his shoulder armor, making it easy for both of them to follow him. After a little while he picked up that someone was following him. He turned around and took the both of them by surprise. On the one hand, they got visual confirmation this was Noro. The diagonal scar across his face matched perfectly with Zoran’s memory, even if the face underneath it had aged. But the issue with getting clear visual confirmation was that he was now using both of his blasters to open fire. Innocent citizens ran away and tried to hide. Marigold and Zoran dodged as fast as they could. Zoran pulled his blaster from his holster and began firing back. Marigold moved a table to duck behind before firing back.

Zoran kept moving forward, ducking behind whatever he could. He didn’t get too far until he was forced into one spot. Only popping out to fire quickly to try and aim before being forced to pull his head back. Blasts zipped past all of them. Most of them hitting random objects and the sides of buildings. But a couple of people who couldn’t get away quick enough were starting to get hit. Growing frustrated, Zoran peeked out just enough to get a good visual of Noro before pulling out and shooting. He hit him right in one of his wrists, making him drop one of his blasters. Just as he was moving in to take him down, Noro grabbed another nearby person and held them, pointing the blaster at her head. Zoran stood still, trying to control his breathing. Marigold stood up and liked Zoran, continued aiming her weapon at the criminal. “Let her go Noro! Your outnumbered and got nowhere to run to and hide out.”

“I don’t need to hide here. Just need to get back to my ship and get off this miserable rock.” He snarled at the two of them. Slowly backing up and trying to get out of sight so he can start running away. But Zoran took a risk and just started charging at him. Surprised by the arrogant decision, Noro pulled his blaster away and tried to fire at him. But Marigold shot his other wrist, making him drop the weapon. Tackling Noro, the criminal let go of his hostage as he fell onto the ground. Pulling out handcuffs, Marigold rushed over. Zoran got on top of, grabbing him by the edge of his armor. He brought his head down and smashed Noro’s nose with his head. Standing back up, Marigold put the cuffs on his arms. Zoran pulled the criminal up and they started walking.

Neither of them realized that it was starting to get dark. Or, in the case of this planet, darker. The lights surrounding the street were beginning to light up as they walked back to the station. Marigold decided to question him a bit as they walked. “Why come here? I understand coming out to the Outer Rim to lay low, but why this planet?”

“Does it matter?” His only response. Zoran continued holding him by one of his arms as they walked down the road. 

“I guess not. But why turn on your partner?”

He grunted. “I needed him to help with the job. But I wasn’t going to share any of it. It was logical.” All of them stopped outside of the station. Zoran and Marigold looked at each other. She saw something in his eyes. An aura surrounded his body, a dark one. Anger and pain, that was what she recognized in his eyes. Something she hadn’t seen him visualize before. She asked no questions, because she knew that as soon as she gave him that nod what she would have to do afterword. Zoran pulled Noro away, into the dark alley beside the station. Marigold stood in front of the alley, looking up at the sky to look at the stars. Once in the alley, light that had brightly illuminated their trail had drastically weakened. But they could see well enough.

Turning Noro around, Zoran pushed him up against the wall. The Nagai looked at the young man. Despite his age, the shadows under his eyes showed that he wasn’t ignorant of the harsh nature of life. He had a beard and mustache that seamlessly blended together, and his hair was buzzed so only about half an inch of it was left. The two locked gazes, the criminal speaking first. “If you’re looking for a bribe, you can forget about it. I plan on escaping and keeping the loot to myself.” 

“I don’t care about your stolen credits.” Zoran told him. “But I do care about all the people you killed along the way to get to this point.”

Noro raised an eyebrow in annoyed confusion. “Are you going to go into some speech about how you are better than me because you don’t kill?”

Zoran moved his hand, seemingly reaching for his blaster. But Noro didn’t turn his eyes away from Zoran’s to be sure. “I kill, I’ll admit it. But I don’t do it for wealth or anything like that. It’s about serving justice.”

The criminal laughed at that. “Justice. In this galaxy, that’s a fucking joke. Republic, Empire, First Order, they are all corrupt. You think your brand on this planet makes any difference?” He moved away from the wall, taking a couple steps closer to Zoran. “I can tell that it exhausts you. What good does playing the Marshall do for this place? If you ask me, you’re simply wasting time. People like me get things done. If you want something, you take it.”

Once the last words left his mouth, Noro felt nothing but pain. His chest had been penetrated. Zoran’s face was illuminated just a little bit more. From a red glow coming from below. His head looked down, seeing a red beam push through his chest. Noro’s eyes closed, Zoran using one hand to make sure he doesn’t fall down. The red disappeared, the weapon put back where he grabbed it. Using both hands, he carried the body out from the alley. Marigold turned to see Zoran and the one in his arms. “Too bad we couldn’t take him in alive.” She looked over the body as it was given to her. “At least we can still hand over the two assholes to whoever the new Republic sends over.” He gave a slow nod, meeting her eyes once again. The anger was gone. The pain was still there, but not quite as intense. As Marigold took the man known as Noro inside, Zoran walked back down the road. 

He reached the landing platform. Meeting Morton again, the four armed alien grunted when he saw him. “Heard you took down a fugitive. Plan on grilling him good to see if he has any hidden treasures?”

“He’s dead. Happened as we were trying to separate him from his hostage. With so much going on, it’s understandable that people would be confused by what happened.”

The two stared at each other. Giving another grunt, Morton shrugged. “As long as it’s dealt with, I don’t care about the details. But I assume you’re here to claim his ship.” Nodding, Morton motioned to the yellow vessel across the platform. “You’re finally getting off of this rock tonight?”

“Not yet. But soon.” With that, he turned around and walked up the street a little bit. Then he stopped, looking up to the stars in the sky. The same sky he remembered seeing that ship fall from. He walked out of town and across rocky terrain, coming across the wreckage. Wasn’t too bad but the pilot was dead. He saw her, grabbing her blue arm and pulling her out of the crashed ship. She told him she was being transported, how some guy – probably idealistic and extreme in his beliefs – attacked and rescued her. He was going over some sort of rendezvous plan that was luckily on this planet but their ship got shot while escaping. He took her back, got her a little familiar with the town layout. She relaxed when it seemed like they made it to the right city. She talked about her home world and family. He opened up himself, not a lot but more than with most. Then after their night of hot and dirty love making, they were forced to part ways.

Zoran couldn’t speak to why that dead pilot wanted to free that girl. Maybe he truly believed slavery of any kind was wrong and sought to make a change. Or maybe he had hoped by coming off that way, he could have her all to herself. Whatever it was, there was no doubt he had something inside telling him that this was something he needed to do. Something that he had to go through with. Just like how despite hating being here, there was something telling him he had to wait. A few more years. Perhaps give it a couple more months. But after he watched her walk away, that voice was singing a different tune.

“Soon. Very soon.” Pulling his eyes back down to the town, he walked back to the station. Helped Marigold get everything prepared. Then he went back home, to a bed that is sadly once again empty.


End file.
